Posts Tagged ‘Truth’

Of faith, hope, and love—love is the greatest of these. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, and loving the lost has been the focus; we’ve yet to come to loving Jesus Christ, be patient we’ll get there.

Love has no shortage of biblical precept, nor is there a shortage of need for discussion.

Loving the lost, our fellow man, our neighbor is our current focus. In Matthew 22:36–40 we read about the greatest of the commands, ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

The command is clear. Its goal is equally as clear. Yet Christians need much more than the command to love. How so? By answering why its necessary, and how the ability to authentically love is even possible is highly important to this discussion. Otherwise commands are the platform of loveless death. Let’s face it, love, true love, isn’t ooie-gooey-warm-and-fuzzy, I don’t care what the Princess Bride teaches.

Horace Bushnell has beautifully expressed love in light of the perfection of the atonement. In the end, unless we grasp the perfection of the atonement, we will never really understand the power and depth of love as commanded in Christ.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

“Love is a principle essentially vicarious in its own nature, identifying the subject with others, so as to suffer their adversities and pains, and taking on itself the burden of their evils. There is a Gethsemane hid in all love. Holding such a view of vicarious sacrifice, we must find it belonging to the essential nature of all holy virtue. We are also required, of course, to go forward and show how it pertains to all other good beings, as truly as to Christ himself in the flesh—how the eternal Father before Christ, and the Holy Spirit coming after, and the good angels both before and after, all alike have borne the burdens, struggled in the pains of their vicarious felling for men; and then, at last, how Christianity come to its issue, in begetting in us the same vicarious love that reigns in all the glorified and good minds of the heavenly kingdom; gathering us in after Christ our Master, as they have learned to bear his cross, and be with him in his passion.” Horace Bushnell

Love to one another, and for one another is important. It’s intuitive, right? If I were to write a manual on this subject it might be titled ‘Love for Dummies’. But that title has already been taken. Under this title is a highly secularized picture of love. The title itself implies that this is an easy matter, and dummies need it spelled out for them through the lowest common denominator.

Love one another, easy enough, right? And if others don’t get it, just say it louder!

Let it suffice to say, love really isn’t that easy. It is a matter that takes a lifetime to figure out, and the power of Jesus to function within. For the Christian the call to love each other is so common, if not altogether cliche, that it really isn’t heard.

In the Gospel of Matthew we see that this call extends beyond affection for those whom we are in fellowship with, or even those whom we find highly important. In Matthew 18:10–14, an exhortation on the love for souls is given, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

Here we read a command to value those considered unimportant. Functionally it is call to love. It might be skewed by some as children are almost deified in our society, and agricultural precepts are lost on most. Here is a command to pursue those who are lesser or obstinately off on their own and not worth the time.

In other cultures, and in particularly the historic context of the passage, children are regarded as less than. And stray sheep are regarded as an inconvenient matter that is handled according to economic measures. Jesus paints a picture with children and the singular sheep, as the lesser, and how they are not to be despised, but regarded as highly important.

This example points to something greater than simply treating children well, or keeping the herd gathered. Rather it presses the hearer to consider the souls of others, even those of lesser value, as greatly important. Even within religious people there is a utilitarian tendency to cast aside those who are down trodden and unimportant, especially those who are burdensome.

Don’t get me wrong, the church does many great things, we give many great things in an effort to love those in need, but the lack of love in the world would demand that Christians consider how we might fill that void. It has often been stated that Christians shoot the weak or wounded, rather than love those who are inconvenient. Kids are inconvenient, and so is a lost sheep, as are many people God places directly in our paths. Do we really regard the weak and wounded as too much of a burden? Do we really have a want of love for the souls of mankind?

I don’t think the church is as bad, or as good as some would frame it. Many regard others to be less than and insignificant. This is a heart matter that Christians must deal with. Remember Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost, to love the souls of men, and seek to keep them from perishing through the message of the cross. By God’s grace we are invited to do the same.

How do you love the souls of men? Do you despise the little ones? Do you seek after the one, rejoice over the one? Take the time this week to think about your want of love for the souls of others.

“A want of love to one another,” is a serious issue, it cannot be ignored. So many people want love, but do not have love. There are those who will do anything to get love, but fail to grasp Love. Few comprehend, it is in giving that we shall receive. The love sick masses line up for romantic tales, paltry images of feigned love-illdefined, or just lustful escapades that promise fulfillment, only to discover their love quest leaves them empty once again.

The past few blogs I have written concerning the problems that face the church. C.H. Spurgeon wrote that one of those things was a want of love to one another. Now, this is not love as the world would define it, but it is defined as God would command. It is something that our society wants with great urgency. There is a demand for love, but and unwillingness to truly seek genuine love.

Scripture communicates the necessity of love. We are to love at all times, we are to love the unlovely, we are to even love our enemy, all of which are not terribly romantic ideas. Apart from Christ these manners of love and charity are impossible.

Love is not only for those who affirm us, or whom we like, but it is also for those whom we have a mutual sharing in the things of Christ. If Christians hate each other they must question their profession of faith in Christ. In 1 John 3:14 we read, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

If a want of love for Christians is in a Christian’s heart, repentance is in order. A Christian’s response to this admonition is important. Some will respond with self-doubt & loathing, which is wounded pride; others are irritated with the teaching, while justifying their own actions; others fail to see their loveless hearts, denying their need, and the truth. Self-examination leading to repentance is necessary for all. Followers of Christ cannot reflect the world and its ignorance regarding love.

A quick look in the Word evidences love as a felt need of the Word. John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love…” Romans 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection.” Galatians 5:13, “…only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Natural man doesn’t love appropriately, if at all. Christians receive from God’s Word the call to love over and again. Leading to the maybe-not-so-obvious-need, for those whom are in Christ, to love one another.

It may be in vogue to slander the church, produce de-conversion stories, or simply blame the church for rejecting God. God’s Word beckons His children to love one another. If honesty prevails, people, all people, even Christian people, struggle to let love be genuine. A supernatural response of people is to love one another, thus in Christ, His people labor to figure love out.

Even though the natural man is constantly searching for somethings they may consider to be love. Apart from Christ this itch will never be satisfied.

Ephesians 4:15–16, “…speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”